Come and see BPhil Candidate Tobin Richter present and defend his thesis. Tobin interprets the novels One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez 1967) and The Old Drift (Namwali Serpell 2019) as decolonial texts which call for the dismantling of the cultural, political, and economic inequalities created by colonialism, which continue to relegate the Global South to a subordinate position in the modern world. He focusses on cultural decolonization which he defines as a practice of rejecting Eurocentric and racist interpretations of the history of the Global South and its people, asserting the value of histories, traditions, and forms of expression devalued by the Global North, and theorizing what an equitable world could look like. To show how this definition operates in the two novels, he reads them through the theories of decolonial thinkers like Aníbal Quijano and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. This research examines literature's role in contesting hegemonic narratives and imagining alternatives to dominant social, political and economic models.

Dr. Ivo Rollis is a Visiting Scholar from Latvia in Political Science. He is funded by the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation Fellowship Program.

Dr. Ivo Rollis worked in a senior management position at the European Integration Bureau during the peak of Latvia’s accession to the European Union (1999–2004). After Latvia’s accession to the European Union, as a public sector consultant he supported the governments in the Western Balkans and European Neighborhood Policy countries on European integration and public administration reform issues in the European Union, World Bank, United Nations Development Program and the European Union member states bilaterally funded technical assistance support projects. Currently, he is a Council Member of the lead Center for Public Policy “PROVIDUS” in Latvia where he supports the dialogue with the government on public administration efficiency, modernization and crisis resilience issues.

The Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership invites you to attend a celebration in honor of Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya in recognition of her exemplary work and advocacy to support women and girls in Kenya and around the world. Ntaiya is the founder of the Kakenya Center for Excellence (KCE) with the mission to educate girls and end harmful traditional practices including FGM and child marriage.

Ntaiya earned her PhD in education from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the recipient of many awards and accolades, in 2013 she received the University of Pittsburgh's prestigious Sheth International Achievement Award, given to young alumni for their contributions around the world. She was honored with the Global Women’s Right Award from the Feminist Majority Foundation, was recognized by Women in the World as a “Woman of Impact,” and named a CNN Hero. Kakenya was honored with a Vital Voices Global Leadership award in 2008 and as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2010. She was named as one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Shake the World” in 2011, and was counted among the Women Deliver 100: The Most Inspiring People Delivering for Girls and Women. Learn more at kakenyasdream.org

Join Brazil Nuts for their weekly Portuguese language conversation table during Spring semester, every Monday from 4:30-5:30 pm in the Global Hub!

Small welcome reception for scholars, educators & students as broadly conceived writers